US sales: April 2017, models

After discussing the US auto brand sales ranking for April, let’s take a closer look at the models ranking. In a big upset among the market-leading large pickups, RAM Pickup outsold its rival Chevrolet Silverado for the second month in a row and only the third time in three years. If the large Chevy continues underperforming like this, its FCA rival may overtake it in the YTD sales before long – I don’t have the data to prove it, but I don’t think the Dodge Ram/RAM Pickup has ever outsold the Silverado in a full year. Behind the pickups there is a new car sales leader – the new Honda CR-V – which outsold both the Toyota RAV4 and Nissan Rogue, with the Nissan ranking particularly poorly in #9 – it’s lowest position in half a year, and in danger of losing its #4 YTD spot to the Honda in May. Still, it’s clear the CR-V’s and RAV4’s success is at least partly due to customers shunning the brands’ compact and mid-sized cars continues, all of which lost sales once again in April, and are down 2 or 3 spots in the rankings so far this year.

The Top 10-50 saw some great performances from many models, even when you take away the Chrysler Pacifica‘s artificially high number (its sales began this time last year with a few units). The hearty sales growth of Chevrolet Cruze (up 50.6%) and Hyundai Elantra (up 32.2%) shows that the compact segment is not dead yet, and further explains the sales decline of the Civic and Corolla. The other models with a healthy growth rate were all crossovers: Toyota Highlander (up 19.6%), Mazda CX-5 (up 28.4%), GMC Acadia (up 45.1%), Hyundai Tucson (up 28.9%) and its Santa Fe brother (up 32.6%). The omens are not so good for the mid-sized segment, with multiple models once again losing a ton of sales: Nissan Altima (down 28.9%), Chevrolet Malibu (down 20.2%) and Ford Fusion (down 19.5% in #23, the model’s lowest position in almost five years). The fall in sales also continued for GMC Sierra (down 15.3%), Jeep Cherokee (down 20.3%), Ford Focus (down 17.4%), Ford Transit (down 20.0%), the Honda Pilot (down 14.3%) and Kia Soul (down 20.3%). Of those it’s interesting to note that the market failure of the uber-conservative and over-sized Pilot has prompted speculations that Honda will bring a more interesting, mid-sized 5-seat crossover to compliment the Pilot, much like the Edge compliments the Explorer. While sales of all these aforementioned models have been falling for a while, the same can’t be said of the usually-in-demand Dodge Grand Caravan (down 25.6%) and the Chevrolet Traverse (down 22.6%), which must be entering the handover stage before the new model arrives.

In the top 50-100, the standout performance came once again from the new Nissan Titan, making April the second month in a row that the model placed in the top 100, which it had been absent from for almost nine years before that. Other models that did well include, once again, the aging Dodge Journey (up 72.7%), a welcome recovery from Mercedes-Benz C-class (up 38.5%), a continuation of the sales growth of VW Golf (up 40.7%) and the facelifted Chevrolet Trax (up 44.3%), and the rise in sales of Audi Q5 (up 26.0%) thanks to the new model hitting the market. Big losers in this part of the ranking are Ford Mustang, Honda Odyssey, Hyundai Accent, Mazda Mazda3 and Toyota Prius liftback, all of whose sales decline was even worse than the models have so far experienced in 2017. A special mention too for the Jeep Patriot and Compass twins, whose halving of sales in 2017 so far is more a reflection of how unexpectedly well they did in 2016, rather than an underperformance for what are rather tired old models.

The bestselling new nameplates (<12 months) are the Cadillac XT5 at #78 and Buick Envision in #87 – the first time this model placed in the top-100. After a steady increase, Infiniti QX30 suffered a collapse in sales in April, selling only 1,208 units compared to almost 3,000 in March, while Kia Niro and its cousin Hyundai Ioniq keep climbing steadily – they are now up to #114 and #168, respectively. Finally, the Chevrolet Bolt EV sets a new monthly sales record at 1,292 units.

Kriss grew up in Poland reading German car magazines, before moving to England and graduating to the British magazines, which he still considers the best in the world and continues reading them after he'd moved to the US. In college he promised himself he's buy himself a used Porsche before he turned 30 (not to be accused of having a mid-life crisis), but instead family needs dictated a Subaru Outback. Still waiting for that perfect moment to buy a used 2008-ish Cayman...
You can find all his articles Here.

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